THE ORIENTALIST PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT
About this collection
rainworld archive houses one of Austria’s best collections of 19th & 20th century photographs from the Maghreb and the former Ottoman Empire. Pre-photographic visual documents complement the extensive inventory of vintage photographs. Online exhibitions on the topic of orientalism and specific photographers will be posted here.
100 VIEWS OF THE PYRAMIDS AND
THE SPHINX
Wilhelm Hammerschmidt, the sphinx, mid 1860s. Albumen print.
"Les Pyramides D´Egypte et la Sphinx - Pl. 134". Copper engraving by Bernard de Montfaucon (1655-1741), Paris, Delaulne & Foucault, 1719.
From: Bernard de Montfaucon: "L´Antiquite Expliquée et Représentée en Figures… Les Funerailles des Nations Barbares, les Lampes, les Supplices,...Tome Cinquieme, Seconde Partie. 1st edition. Sheet size: c. 44 x 52 cm
"L´Interieur de la Grande Pyramide - Pl. 135". Copper engraving by Bernard de Montfaucon (1655-1741), Paris, Delaulne & Foucault, 1719.
From: Bernard de Montfaucon: "L´Antiquite Expliquée et Représentée en Figures… Les Funerailles des Nations Barbares, les Lampes, les Supplices,...Tome Cinquieme, Seconde Partie. 1st edition. Sheet size: c. 44 x 26 cm
The first image of the pyramids after a daguerreotype.
Noël Marie Paymal Lerebours, "Pyramide de Cheops / Egypte".
Acquatinta, c. 1841. 28.8 x 23.2 cm
This lithograph version is a composite image of the original daguerreotype which doesn't exist any more. The background image with the pyramid appears to be taken from the daguerreotype, the front with the camels and woman have been added as a drawing.
Before the rise of paper photography in the 1850s, artists relied on illustrated publications to reproduce unique daguerreotype views. The most ambitious of these publications, Noël-Paymal Lerebours’s Excursions daguerriennes, first appeared in 1840. Lerebours commissioned and acquired daguerreotypes from around the globe. The Swiss-born entrepreneur Joly contributed the first photograph of the Parthenon, made in October 1839, noting that "each year can bring new changes to the appearance of the celebrated ruins." (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/269123)
Noël Marie Paymal Lerebours (16 February 1807 – 23 July 1873) was a French optician and daguerreotypist. He is best known today for his Excursions Daguerriennes, books of views of the world's monuments, based on early photographs redrawn by hand as Aquatint engravings. Lerebours is known for his Excursions Daguerriennes, books of views of the world's monuments, based on early photographs, produced in Paris in a number of subscription volumes between 1841 at the dawn of photography and 1864.[7][8][9] Some of the photographs, of the Niagara Falls as well as of Rome and Paris, were taken by the English industrial chemist Hugh Lee Pattinson. These were then transferred to engravings to illustrate Lerebours' Excursions Daguerriennes (Paris, 1841–1864).[10] However, the manual process of translating the photographs to aquatint engravings took away the immediacy of the real daguerreotypes, whatever the gains in quality. In 1851, Lerebours was one of the founders of the first photographic society, the Société Héliographique. Die Fotografen sind in den Bildunterschriften nicht erwähnt. Nur wenige Namen konnten erschlossen werden (Pierre-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière, Fréderic Goupil-Fesquet und Hugh Lee Pattinson). Links steht meist „Daguerreotype Lerebours“ als Verweis auf den Rechteinhaber, in der Mitte der Drucker, rechts der bearbeitende Kupferstecher. Die epochemachende Stellung dieser Publikation beruht darauf, dass hier zum ersten Mal in der Geschichte auf der Basis fotografischer Aufnahmen topographische Ansichten in nennenswertem Umfang vervielfältigt und publiziert wurden. Doch ist die Neuheit nicht nur technischer Art. Sie markiert auch einen Wendepunkt in Stil und Wirklichkeitswahrnehmung. Zwar erreicht die Wiedergabe mittels der Aquatintatechnik nicht die hohe Detailauflösung der originalen Daguerreotypie, aber die harte Gradation, der objektiv vorhandene Kontrast zwischen Hell- und Dunkelwerten ist eine Eigenschaft, die durch die Fotografie in die Bilderwelt kam. Die subjektive visuelle Wahrnehmung des Menschen ist dagegen in der Lage, Helligkeitsstufen auszugleichen und entsprechend reduziert waren die Schlagschatten der älteren Ansichtengraphik. Kulturgeschichtlich gesprochen war die herkömmliche Darstellungsweise idealisiert, sie hatte etwas Zeitloses, zumindest zeitlich Undefiniertes. Ganz anders die Fotografie und ihr von Lerebours publizierter, hybrider Abkömmling: Anhand des Schattenfalls sind Tages- und Jahreszeit zu bestimmen.[10] Zudem erlaubt die Perspektive, den Standort des Fotografen und des Betrachters eindeutig zu lokalisieren. Der Gestaltungsspielraum des Kupferstechers wurde äußerst reduziert. In der Produktion und Rezeption von Bildern wie auch in anderen Kunstäußerungen gewinnt eine objektive, realistische Sicht an Bedeutung. Das von Lerebours edierte Album steht damit auch am Anfang einer langen, von Künstlern und Wissenschaftlern geführten Auseinandersetzung zwischen Fotografie und graphischer Kunst.(wikipedia) Coming to Egypt two years after Vernet and Goupil-Fesquet, Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey spent several years making more than 800 daguerreotypes of monuments throughout the eastern Mediterranean. Aiming to be the first to collect and publish images of the world’s great monuments, the wealthy Parisian optician Noël-Marie Paymal Lerebours equipped a handful of amateurs with cameras and chemicals.
In addition, he offered a commission to the Orientalist painter Horace Vernet, director the French Academy in Rome, and his nephew Frédéric Goupil-Fesquet—the latter to make photographs to complement his uncle’s sketches. The two traveled to Marseille and departed for Egypt on October 21, 1839. They stopped in Italy, Malta and Greece before landing in Alexandria on November 4. Goupil-Fesquet wrote in 1844 in Voyage d’Horace Vernet en Orient. He questioned his guests on the state of the arts and sciences in Europe and expressed an interest in seeing how the new photographic instrument worked. Vernet and Goupil-Fesquet returned to Ras el-Tin palace on the edge of Alexandria’s harbor the next day at seven a.m. to demonstrate the daguerreotype.
The operation lasted some minutes, and Mohammed Ali was wary. After being exposed, the sensitized, polished mirror was fumed with mercury in a wooden box. The fixed image was then bathed in a solution of hyposulphite of soda and rinsed in distilled water. Although it was a mechanical process that applied science to the arts, it had a whiff of magic about it.
That image from November 7, 1839, is the first documented photograph of Egypt, and indeed of the African continent. The original plate is long gone, but an engraving from it (see top-most banner image) shows an ornate outer gate with two men, perhaps a guard and a doorman, lounging in the open doorway. Behind, with tall windows and low-peaked roofs, stands the palace harem. A couple of trees lean over the fence.
Also following in the footsteps of Vernet and Goupil-Fesquet was Alphonse-Eugène-Jules Itier, another daguerreotypist who traveled to document world treasures in the early 1840s. While he was working for the French Customs Service, his travels took him to Africa, the West Indies, China, the Pacific Islands, Borneo, Manila—and Egypt, where in 1845 or 1846 he exposed this unusually candid image of travelers on the Nile in a sailing boat. - Daguerreotypists raced to capture the world’s wonders with their new medium. Egypt was among their first and most desired destinations—along with Greece and Rome—but Arago’s lofty goal of photographing all of the country’s hieroglyphics remained a scholar’s wish amid newly fervent commercial competition.
Egypt, it turned out, was an excellent place to work as a daguerreotypist, especially in the cool of winter. It offered photographers good and ample light, which was important for the long exposures daguerreotypes required. Most importantly, it had an abundance of historical places of the highest public interest to capture. Other photographers were not long in arriving. That November, Vernet and Goupil-Fesquet met another daguerreotypist in Alexandria, Pierre Joly de Lotbinière. Born in Switzerland, raised in France and, at age 41, a wealthy landowner living outside Quebec, Canada, he was in Paris at the time of Daguerre’s announcement. He was about to embark on a tour of the eastern Mediterranean, and he was fascinated by the new photographic process. Caught up in “daugerreotypomania,” he, too, had secured a commission (as well as equipment) from Lerebours. En route to Egypt, Joly de Lotbinière had stopped in Athens, where in mid-October he had made the first photographs of the Acropolis.
Soon after meeting, the three daguerreotypists made their way south to the splendors of Cairo. “We have been daguerreotyping like lions,” Vernet wrote to a friend. The trio arrived in neighboring Giza to photograph the Sphinx on the same November day. There were just two cameras in all of Egypt, and the photographer behind each was jockeying for the best angle of the same famously enigmatic antiquity.( https://www.aramcoworld.com/articles/2015/capturing-the-light-of-the-nile-egypts-first-photographs)
On November 20, Goupil-Fesquet captured another iconic monument, the Pyramid of Cheops, working from outside a gate that surrounded the complex. The scene, which is known today only through a subsequent engraving (see top banner image), is bucolic, with a saddled camel and three people quietly lounging in the foreground, the pyramid rising behind it in brilliant light. The exposure took 15 minutes.
Francis Frith, 1857, The Sphynx and the Great Pyramid, at Geezeh. Albumen print stereoview
Wilhelm Hammerschmidt, The Pyramid and the sphinx, mid 1860s. Albumen print carte de visite.
Casa Editrice G. Brogi, Firenze, 4113. Cairo. Piramidi e Sfingi.
Albumen print stereoview
H. Léon (?), the sphinx and pyramids, mid 1870s.
Albumen print cabinet card.
Hermann Léon promoted his work under the name ”Weltphotographie”. He ran studios in Constantinople, Alexandria, and Bucharest. He frequently made use of negatives of other photographers. It can be assumed, that he is not the actual author of this image.
Foreign Scenery, the sphinx and pyramids, mid 1870s.
Albumen print stereoview
THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZA
Zangaki, 1880s, Vue génerale des Pyramides. Albumen print.
A. Bonfils, Beyrouth, 1890s, 7. Vue générale des Pyramides. Collotype
Bonfils, 1880s, 107. Le Caire, Pyramide de Chéfren. Albumen print, 27.9 x 22.1 cm
The first paper photographs of the pyramids and the sphinx appear to be taken by French writer and amateur photographer Maxime du Camp in 1849. Du Camp travelled together with his friend, writer Gustav Flaubert and documented the journey for the first time with a camera. He brought back more than 200 paper negatives. They were published in 1852. Félix Teynard (1817–1892), a civil engineer from Grenoble, traveled up the Nile River in 1851/1852, documenting the landscapes and architecture of Egypt and Nubia. His waxed-paper negatives were printed by Élisabeth Hubert de Fonteny's printing establishment in 1853-1854 and subsequently published by Adolphe Goupil in 1858. Around the same time French/American John Beasley Greene, a student of Gustave Le Gray, completed his images of Egyptian archaeological sites including the pyramids and the sphinx. James Robertson (1813–1888) and Felice Beato (1832–1909) were also around in Egypt at that time, however reliable dating of their Egyptian photographs is still not yet available. An important body of photographs was created by British photographer Francis Frith (1822–1898) who set out with a 8-by-10 inch camera on his first of three tours to Egypt in 1856. A selection of his photographic results was printed from wet-collodion 9 x 7 negatives (published in 1858). And then – many others followed: J. Pascal Sébah (Turkish, 1823–1886), Luigi Fiorillo (Italian, 1847?–1898), Hippolyte Arnoux (French, active ca. 1860 – c. 1890), the Greek Zangaki Brothers, Armenian painter and photographer Gabriel Lekegian (1853 – c. 1920), to name just a few.
In contrast to other examples of early travel photography, photographing the pyramids was not that difficult, even in the early days of the medium: good light conditions, a dry climate, and the bold structure of the motif were in favor of the then complicated photographic process with fragile glass plates and long exposure times. Still the early photographs of Egyptian antiquities do not show any people living around them. Although quite a few images show blurry figures, exposure times below one minute would have allowed to portray people if they were not moving, But it was the bold structures of the monuments early photographer were interested in, not the indigenous people. Only later images such as Frith’s photographs featured people standing next to the monuments: initially they were meant just for scale, but later images show already autochthonous people in front of their houses or glimpses of village life.
BK Paris (J.A.) Grande pyramide, du pyramide de Kheops a Gizeh. Albumen print (hold to light) stereoview
Zangaki, 1880s, No.414. Village arabe et Pyramides. Albumen print.
Zangaki, 1880s, No.139. Les 3 Pyramides et le Nil. Caire. Albumen print.
BK Paris (J.A.) Le sphinx & la 1er pyramide a Gizeh. Albumen print stereoview
L. Fiorillo, 1880s, 187. Les Pyramides pendant l’inondation. Albumen print.
Zangaki, 1880s, 440. Pyramide. Albumen print.
Zangaki, 1880s, 440. Pyramides. Albumen print.
H. Arnoux, 1870s, No.609 La Grand pyramide de Chéops. Albumen print
Quite a few images show the pyramids during the Nile flood – usually with camel riders or farmers standing in the shallow water. The pyramids were built on a flood plain that suffered catastrophic inundation on a regular basis throughout history.
Otto Gries, 1930s stereo glass plate positive.
The Pyramids of Giza. Amateur photo, around 1930. Stereoview negative.
Otto Gries, 1930s stereo glass plate positive.
Otto Gries, 1930s stereo glass plate positive.
Anonymous, 1930s stereoview negative.
THE SPHINX
The sphinx still under sand. Albumen print, 1870s
The Great Sphinx of Giza is a limestone statue of a reclining, mythical creature with the head of a human and the body of a lion.
The sphinx is said to date to the time of Khafre (or Chephren, died c. 2532 BC). This is supported by the proximity of the sphinx to Khafre's pyramid temple complex, and a certain resemblance (despite damage) to the facial structure seen in his statues. The Great Sphinx of Giza may have been carved out as a guardian of Khafre's pyramid, and as a symbol of royal power. It became deified during the time of the New Kingdom.
The face of the Sphinx appears to represent the pharaoh Khafre.[Chephrên]. The original shape of the Sphinx was cut from the bedrock, and has since been restored with layers of limestone blocks. It measures 73 m long from paw to tail, 20 m high from the base to the top of the head and 19 m wide at its rear haunches.
The Sphinx is the oldest known monumental sculpture in Egypt. The archaeological evidence suggests that it was created by ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom during the reign of Khafre (c.2558–2532 BC).
The circumstances surrounding the Sphinx's nose being broken off are uncertain, but close inspection suggests a deliberate act using rods or chisels. Contrary to a popular myth, it was not broken off by cannonfire from Napoleon's troops during his 1798 Egyptian campaign. Its absence is in fact depicted in artwork predating Napoleon and referred to in descriptions by the 15th-century historian al-Maqrīzī.
Most early Western images were book illustrations in print form, elaborated by a professional engraver from either previous images available or some original drawing or sketch supplied by an author, and usually now lost. In 1817, the first modern archaeological dig, supervised by the Italian Giovanni Battista Caviglia, uncovered the Sphinx's chest completely. In 1854 and 1858 the sphinx was uncovered twice, but only in on the beginning of the year 1887, the chest, the paws, the altar, and plateau were all made visible. Flights of steps were unearthed, and finally accurate measurements were taken of the great figures.
In 1926 the Sphinx was cleared of sand under direction of Baraize, which revealed an opening to a tunnel at floor-level at the north side of the rump. It was subsequently closed by masonry veneer and nearly forgotten. More than fifty years later, the existence of the passage was recalled by three elderly men who had worked during the clearing as basket carriers. This led to the rediscovery and excavation of the rump passage, in 1980.
The great sphinx partially excavated c. 1878. Albumen print
One paw has been already uncovered, along with the ”Dream Stele”, a monument placed between the Sphinx’s paws in 1401 B.C. by The Pharao Thutmose IV, during a previous excavation.
Peridis, c. 1890s, the Sphinx; albumen print
c. 1890s, the Sphinx with a man standing atop; albumen print, 26.9 x 20.9 cm
Peridis, c. 1890s, the Sphinx; albumen print; detail: photographer waiting for clients next to the sphinx
G. Lekegian, c. 1890s, Sphinx de Ghizeh; printed later 1900s. Gelatin silver print
The ”Dream Stele” is clearly visible.
J.P. Sébah, 264. Sfinx; albumen print, 27 x 21.3 cm
After Napoleon's military invasion of Egypt at the end of the 18th century, Egyptomania has taken hold of Europe, in art, literature and fashion. Egyptology became an academic discipline in Europe, and the African country experienced a surprising rise of tourism. The photographic technology only helped fan the enthusiasm of many Egyptolgoists and tourists. Egypt's unique place in photography history is quiet special. It can be said, that it is the beginning of what we now call travel photography, and it was the most photographed foreign place for Europeans.
In 1850 the first photos of Egypt were published in Europe and over the following fifty years at least 250 amateur and professional photographers would visit the country for shorter or longer periods. They came from Europe as well as from the numerous far-flung corners of the Ottoman Empire.
In 1850 the first photos of Egypt were published in Europe and over the following fifty years at least 250 amateur and professional photographers would visit the country for shorter or longer periods. They came from Europe as well as from the numerous far-flung corners of the Ottoman Empire.
cf. In Egypt
Travellers and Photographers, 1850–1900
11.03.2017 — 04.06.2017
Photographs of Hagia Sophia and the Great Pyramid of Giza satisfied Western demand for views of ancient sites and reinforced stereotypes of Asia and the Middle East as temporally static—undying pasts.
Other images like the Underwood & Underwood stereographs, collapsed space, enabling armchair visitors to tour Egypt, for example, in three dimensions with a viewing device and guidebook.
“Born in Berlin, Wilhelm Hammerschmidt was already a professional photographer when he settled in Cairo, Egypt, around 1860. There he established the Hammerschmidt shop, where he sold photographic materials to other early photographers such as Henry Cammas. Hammerschmidt exhibited ten views of Egypt at the Société Française de Photographie in 1861 before becoming a member the following year. He also made costume and ethnographic studies, exhibiting those at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1867. Hammerschmidt also made photographs in Syria and Nubia, now Sudan” (Wilhelm Hammerschmidt / J. Paul Getty Museum online). Hammerschmidt is considered one of first photographers to produce high quality detailed images of Egypt and his travels and photographs of Upper Egypt and Nubia predate popular tourism in Egypt. He appears to have collaborated with the pioneering photo chemist Hermann Wilhelm Vogel (1834-1898) which would explain the high quality of Hammerschmidt's photographs.
Maison Bonfils was started by Felix Bonfils (1831-1885) in Beirut in 1867 and was "to become one of the most successful photographic businesses in the world. They photographed most of the important sights in the Middle East and their views were widely distributed" (Jacobsen p. 216). Bonfils' "stock had variety enough to please all and ranged from classical landscapes and biblical scenes to ethnographic portraits” (Perez, p. 141).
Biblical narrative in front of the pyramids and the sphinx. Hand-colored collotype, 27.3 x 20.2 cm
Stage design for ”La Legende du Nil“ at the Folies Bergère in Paris. Photo by Walery.
Image shows a stage prop depicting a pharaoh’s bust wearing the Nemes head scarf, symbolizing the Pharaoh’s power, both in life and death.
Around 1900. The sphynx and the pyramids. Print on silk.
Underwood & Underwood, 1896, The Great Sphinx, the Marvel of the Ages, Egypt. Albumen print stereoview
Underwood & Underwood, 1900s, The great Sphinx of Gizeh, the largest royal portrait ever hewn. Collodion paper print stereoview
Ed. Liesegang, Düsseldorf (ed.), 1910s,
8710 Wunderwerke der Baukunst. Pyramide und Sphinx
Hand-colored glass slide, 8.4 x 8.4 cm
c. 1910s,
Sphinx
Glass slide, 8.4 x 8.4cm
Otto Gries, 1930s stereo glass plate positive.
Otto Gries, 1930s stereo glass plate positive.
THE TEMPLE OF CHAFFRA (THE SPHINX TEMPLE)
Bonfils, 1880, Sphynx, grande pyramide et le temple de Chaffra. Albumen print, 27.9 x 21.6 cm
A path that is still quite well preserved leads from the Chephren pyramid in Giza to the so-called Valley Temple of Chephren . This temple, which is directly adjacent to the pit with the Sphinx and next to the so-called Sphinx Temple, is a special feature that usually receives far too little attention. The temple is dedicated to Pharaoh Chephren because some statues of Chephren were found there during the excavations.
Khafre's pyramid complex consists of a valley temple, the Sphinx temple, a causeway, a mortuary temple, and the king's pyramid. The valley temple yielded several statues of Khafre. Several were found in a well in the floor of the temple by Mariette in 1860.
There are at least two temples associated with the Great Sphinx of Giza, one dates back to the Old Kingdom (circa 2686–2181 BCE) and second is from the New Kingdom (circa 1600-1070 BCE). The older one sits directly at the foot of the Great Sphinx. The second lies to the north-east of the Sphinx and is dated back to the New Kingdom.
Pascal Sebah, 1880, Pyramide de Chêops, le Sphynx et le Temple de Chafra, Gyzèh. Albumen print, 33.7 x 25.6 cm
Unidentified photographer, c. 1910s, pyramid and sphinx. Glass slide, 8.4 x 8.4cm
Egyptian Museum. Glass plate positive.
The pharao Khafre (romanized ”Chephrên”) .
Eyptian Museum, Cairo.
Glass plate positive.
Chephrên was the pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty during the Old Kingdom. He built the second-largest pyramid at Giza.
The pyramid has a subsidiary pyramid, labeled G2-a. It is not clear who was buried there. Sealings have been found of a King's eldest son of his body etc. and the Horus name of Khafre.
THE PYRAMID OF DJOSER
W. Hammerschmidt, The pyramid of Djoser, sometimes called the Step Pyramid of Djoser. Albumen print, 1870s.
The Step Pyramid of Djoser is an archaeological site in the Saqqara necropolis, northwest of the ruins of Memphis. The 6-tier, 4-sided structure is the earliest colossal stone building in Egypt. It was built in the 27th century BC during the Third Dynasty for the burial of Pharaoh Djoser.
Otto Gries, 1930s stereo glass plate positive.
S. Atiti for The Ministry of Tourism, Cairo, c. 1950s. Giza Pyramids Cairo. Gelatin silver print, 18.1 x 12.9 cm
PYRAMIDS, SPHINX, AND TOURISM
The Giza Pyramids had already attracted thousands of tourists in the 19th century. A camel ride around the Pyramids had become an essential part of the tourist program with pictures taken on camelback in front of the pyramids. This stereotype is carried on until the present.
Climbing the Great Pyramid remained an essential Egyptian experience until the mid 1960s, when the Egyptian government banned it on the grounds of safety – although pyramid climbing is still practiced illegally.
The Cairo Postcard Trust, , Cairo, around 1900, Souvenir of Cairo. Illustrated booklet
J. Heyman & Co., Cairo, 1890s, Tourist at the Egyptian Museum.
Collodion paper print CDV
Climbing the pyramid. Glass plate positive.
Egypt. The Pyramids and the Sphinx, 1900s relief postcard
Page from an amateur album with heliogravure postcards
Lehnert & Landrock, c. 1930s, Cairo - Sphinx and Pyramids. Gelatin silver print, real photo postcard
Photographie Artistique G.[Gabriel] Lekegian, 1880s, Climbing the pyramids.
Albumen print.
Unidentified photographer, around 1900. Tourists at the Sphinx and Pyramids. Collodion paper print, 22.9 x 17 cm
Lehnert & Landrock, 1929, The excavated Sphinx. Gelatin silver print, 24.2 x 18.1 cm
The image shows the sphinx from the East after the excavation in 1929.
Lehnert & Landrock, 1929, The excavated Sphinx. Gelatin silver print, 24.2 x 18.1 cm
The image shows the sphinx after the excavation in 1929.
Unidentified photographer (edited by Ingersoll?), 830. Tourists on Camels Viewing Sphinx and Pyramids, Cairo, Egypt. Litho print stereoview
G.M. Georgoulas, tourists on camels at the pyramids, 1928. Gelatin silver print
Being in the pyramids tourist photography business, Greek photographer G. [George/Giorgios] M. Georgoulas had the rare opportunity to photograph the delegates of the Cairo Conference (a meeting of Britains’s Middle East experts) in 1921 in front of the pyramids. One of the delegates was British archaeologist, army officer, diplomat, and writer T. E. Lawrence, better known as ”Lawrence of Arabia.” who was then working for Winston Churchill.
Otto Gries, 1930s stereo glass plate positive.
In front of the pyramid. Amateur photo, around 1950. Gelatin silver print.
Egypt. Viewmaster reel. 1950s
Unidentified photographer, the pyramids. c. 1980s.
Medium format color slide, 6 x 6 cm
Tourist group posing at the Pyramids and the Sphinx, 1930s real photo postcard
All images © by rainworld archive